A survey on the influence of applying office automation system on employees’ knowledge and attitude about Influenza in Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Influenza is a highly contagious disease and is common in cold seasons. High prevalence of influenza in workplace causes severe economic damages.Thus any employer would be interested in preventing this by using appropriate tools. Tele Medicine means using information and communication technology tools to prevent primary, secondary and thirdly of diseases. Influenza illness in primary prevention can be achieved by tele educating target group, and change their knowledge as well as attitude and behavior in this goal by sending message on automation system or e-mail. In this study, the researcher is following the above listed equipment to increase awareness of target group about influenza disease. Methods: This research is a quasi-experimental study and was done in 2009-2010. The target group (40 employees) were selected from headquarter units in Tehran University of Medical Sciences using stratified – random sampling method and we respected all ethical principles. We used two approximately similar questionnaires as Pre- test and Post- test to gather data. The reliability of the questionnaires is determined at 90% by Cronbach's alpha test, and then for analyzing the data, they were entered in SPSS software version 16.For analyzing the data, We used: Independent Sample T- Test, One Way ANOVA and Paired Sample T-Test and linear Regression methods. Results: The Mean age of the study group was 34.82 years old. 30% of them were men and 70% were women overall. The mean of answers changed from 35.33 to 42.52 after the intervention (the intervention was sending information about influenza and its way of spreading and so on for surveying its effect on increasing the knowledge of employees) indicates significant differences in these results, so the intervention was effective. Age, academic educational level and the field of educational study did not have any significant relation with changes in knowledge and attitude of the study group, but gender significantly was related to the results. Conclusion: From findings of the research, we saw that this method can be useful for such programs like increasing knowledge about viruses' illnesses. Also we can conclude that with this species plans and the correct use of information and communication technology, particularly in the health field, we can expect not only reduction in different diseases in the future; but also if we follow this trend in long time, we will see increase in knowledge of employees, changes in their attitude and finally by its repeating and continuing we may predict reducing in many organizational costs, medical treatment costs and many other expenses. At last we can suggest using these programs for many other problems in health matters, and many other subjects which influence the costs and benefits of a system.